An elderly woman was struck and killed by a bus Thursday morning in Brooklyn, crushed beneath the front tire of the city Metropolitan Transportation Authority vehicle, the New York Daily News reported.

The TriMet public transit agency in Portland, Ore., and a bus manufacturer have agreed to pay a $4 million settlement stemming from a 2010 bus crash that killed two women and hurt three others, according to The Oregonian.

The case was settled Monday right before a trial was set to start on the litigation, but even after the deal was announced lawyers for the plaintiffs charged that TriMet still has serious safety issues. There were five plaintiffs, namely the families of the two women killed and the three who were hurt in the accident.

TriMet will pay half of the $2 million, and it issued a statement about the settlement. The agency maintained that it had made safety improvements, and “accepted responsibility for the negligent driving of the operator.” But TriMet didn’t admit to any wrongdoing in the fatal April 24, 2010, bus accident.

Bus driver Sandi Day, making an illegal turn, hit a group of friends crossing a street as they exited a comedy club in Old Town in Portland, according to The Oregonian.

Danielle Sale, 22, of Vancouver and Jenee Hammel, 26, of Gresham were both killed. Jenee’s brother Ryan Hammel, 28, and his wife Jamie, 23, were injured, as was Robert Kittings.

The families of the deceased and the three injured originally filed suit in Multnomah County Circuit Court and U.S. District Court, but the federal complaints were dismissed.

Unfortunately, Oregon has a Tort Claim Act that limits the damages that public agencies such as TriMet have to pay if a jury finds them liable for causing injury or death, The Oregonian reported. Under that ridiculous law, TriMet only would have had to pay $1 million that all the plaintiffs would have to divvy up.

TriMet did instead agree to fork over twice that limit, the $2 million.

Bus manufacturer New Flyer of Winnipeg, Manitoba, paid the other half of the $4 million settlement.

A grand jury found that bus driver Day didn’t commit any criminal acts, but she was cited for a half dozen traffic violations and was fired by TriMet.

Markham just got out of a Dallas hospital where she was sent after last week’s accident, when a bus headed for a casino in Oklahoma veered across a highway in Irving, Texas, hit a concrete barriers and turned over on it side. Two passengers were killed.

On Monday passenger Charlotte Reed filed a negligence suit stemming from the accident, the Star-Telegram reported. She had three broken ribs from the crash.

Markham’s lawsuit charges that bus driver Loyd Rieve didn’t control his speed, didn’t brake and didn’t inspect the bus before driving it, according to the Star-Telegram.

The suit also claims that Cardinal Coach didn’t inspect the bus and that it hired unfit employees, as well as not installing “proper parts,” tires included, on the vehicle, the newspaper reported.

The bus was traveling on Texas 161 at Belt Line Road when it suddenly veered right and struck a rubber barrier, the newspaper reported. It then moved to the left, going across two lanes and then hitting a concrete barrier, falling on its side. According to the Star-Telegram, one passenger said the bus may have had a tire blowout, causing the crash.

The two fatalities were passengers Paula Hahn, 69, of Fort Worth and Sue Taylor, 81, of Hurst, the newspaper said. They were pronounced dead at the scene.

Other passengers were taken to local hospitals, with four in critical condition.

The bus was on its way to the Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant, Okla., and its passengers were mostly senior citizens, according to the Star-Telegram.

The bus was operated by Cardinal Coach Lines of Grand Prairie.

The National Safety Transportation Board is investigating the accident.

Authorities investigating the crash in Vallecitos in northern New Mexico where trying to determine what caused the accident, and whether the bus driver was killed by the crash or another reason, such as him suffering a heart attack, AP reported. The man was 69.

The Mesa Vista School District bus was driving on State Road 111 in Carson National Forest when it went off the road, fell off a cliff and crashed into an embankment, according to AP.

Six injured students were transported to a hospital, while three others were treated at the scene.

The passengers on the bus included elementary, middle and high school students, AP said.

Lorraine Ferguson, 47, was hit by, and her head crushed, during the accident at the intersection of East 105th Street and Avenue K in Canarsie, according to the Daily News. Lorraine’s husband Michael Ferguson had driven her to a city bus stop so she wouldn’t have to wait outside in the bitter cold for it.

When she saw her B103 Express bus to Midtown Manhattan coming, Lorraine started crossing the street to get on-board, the News and Post reported. But at that time, a small charter bus was making a turn and hit her, and she wound up crushed and dead beneath that bus.

Her husband claims that the charter bus ran a stop sign and hit his wife, the News reported. Ferguson was so diatraught that he broke down and collapsed at the scene.

The charter bus had two handicapped children as passengers, and neither one was hurt in the accident.

The driver, who wasn’t identified, lost control of the bus around 7 p.m., hitting an exit sign near Broadway, the Chronicle reported. He was alone in the bus when the accident took place.

Officials were at the scene investigating why the driver lost control of the bus, since no other vehicle appeared to be involved.

Patrons at a nearby restaurant ran to the bus when they heard the crash, and when they found the driver he was dead. One of those patrons told the Chronicle that he suspected the bus driver has suffered a heart attack.

In addition to the fatalities, there were also several passengers seriously hurt in the Megabus accident. The bus had been loaded with 28 passengers as well as the driver. who authorities believe may have made a wrong turn off a highway.

The bus struck a bridge on the Onondaga Lake Parkway in the Syracuse suburb of Salina at 2:30 a.m. Saturday. The bus was too high to make it through the low railroad bridge.

The accident killed four people, three men and a young woman. Four others, including the driver, John Tomaszewski, 59, of New Jersey, were seriously hurt. The driver sustained head injuries, but was still able to speak to investigators.

The Megabus was coming from Philadephia en route to Toronto, with stops in Syracuse and Buffalo.

Mark Caton, the father of one of the surviving victims, in an interview said that the public bus had essentially “mowed down” the victims. His daughter Jamie Hammel, her husband, Ryan, Ryan’s sister and two friends had gone out last Saturday night to a comedy club.

The TriMet bus was making turning from westbound Gilsan Street onto southbound Broadway when the bus hit the group of pedestrians who were crossing Broadway.

Speed wasn’t a factor in the crash and the bus driver, Sandi Day, 28, was cooperating with investigators. Day was uninjured in the crash. The accident is under investigation, with no arrests or citations issued yet.

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